October 6, 2011

How can cities prepare for shocks and stresses such as peak oil, freak weather, and deepening economic turmoil? Greg Greene, director of the documentary The End of Suburbia (2004) and the ResilientCity Project, hosts a two-part exploration of urban resilience.

1 pm

Explore how New Yorkers can build resilience and thriving communities between now and 2030, with Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu (winners of the 2010 ResilientCity.org Design Ideas Competition), Dan Miner (Beyond Oil NYC), and Anne Pope (Sustainable Flatbush).

2:30 pm

Resilient Lower East Side: Take part in an interactive workshop to explore how the East Village can build resilience toward a thriving, fair, and comfortable 2030. Moderated by Greg Greene and Crowdbrite inventor Darin Dinsmore.

What effect does the city have on your brain and body? In a series of weekly tours developed with Lab Team member Charles Montgomery, Dr. Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall, has begun to gather evidence about the psychological effects of public spaces near the Lab. This week, join Dr. Ellard on this tour and measure the effects of the city on your own brain and body.

Join us for a discussion with Benoit Jacob, Head of BMW i Design, BMW’s sustainable mobility division, and NYC Department of Transportation Chief of Staff Margaret Newman as we explore urban mobility and the role of design in creating sustainable transit systems.

Climate change, peak oil, and resource scarcity pose a real threat to urban life. Can big cities meet these challenges through technology and good planning, or are they doomed? A no-holds-barred debate between suburban critic James Howard Kunstler (Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency) and James S. Russell, author of the just-released The Agile City: Building Well Being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change. Firmly moderated by Bloomberg Businessweek senior editor Diane Brady.